Latest game by me. A collaborative effort between Woodaba and I on writing, as well as ConeClvtist on music, and Vis and a mutual friend of Cone's and I on art.

I'm leaving this one pretty happy, all things considered; It really stands as something where I could feel everyone firing on all cylinders, and at around 22k words, it definitely breaks a bit of the mold of my last two games. With that said, it's really showing the limits of twine, as an engine. I love it, I will continue to use it, but for anything beyond a one-or-two person affair, creating with Twine proves to be... less than ideal.

In any case, still very glad to have done thing, and really, REALLY impressed by the work my fellows devs put into it.

And yeah I'm giving it a 5 anyway, i am shameless lol

Hidetaka Miyazaki (or JRPG Tolkien as I call him) has probably had the word ‘masterpiece’ thrown at him more times than we’ve had ‘you died’ thrown at us. As a work of art, Dark Souls is his masterpiece. But, as a video game made for the masses but moulded from the same principles, yes, Elden Ring is probably also his masterpiece.

Elden Ring is for Dark Souls what The Lord of the Rings is for The Hobbit. It is a vast expansion of its predecessor not only in scale but in narrative complexity, character depth, innovative worldbuilding and overarching philosophies.

What Elden Ring has more than any Souls game, is a certain accessible warmth. Gone are the days of waking up in a lonely jail cell and wandering into some uncertain prophecy in a hollow and deathly landscape. Instead you are thrust into a thriving world of life, both good and evil, by a range of vibrant allies - all of whom have their own story to tell, many becoming side quests. This, plus improved multiplayer elements and further abilities to summon aid, add to the comfort of its worldliness; it’s a game made for the many, not for the few.

Haha, that’s not to say it’s easy. It’s a bloody Souls game. But now, rather than hitting a brick wall of difficulty, you hit brick columns which you can shimmy around or even try elsewhere to better yourself for the challenges that be. Everybody wins: the game maintains its sadistic aura and the players have unlimited options. That said, I’m sure we all still have plenty of punch-the-seat moments (I'm looking at you, Black Blade Kindred).

As with much of FromSoft’s output, it’s hard not to be wowed by the varied world design: castles, swamps, caves, forests, underground cities and whatever the hell-fuck Caelid is meant to be, rendered with incredible graphic detail. The gruesome inhabitants of these worlds are also just next-level in terms of imagination (shat myself at those hand spider-things).

Of course, there’s always room for criticism of lesser aspects, such as an underwhelming upgrade/crafting system and a few copy-and-paste catacombs levels, but the game is just too grand for those cracks to harm the foundation.

Most important, as with Breath of the Wild or any truly open-world game, is the sense of freedom: that ability to go literally anywhere and be rewarded rather than punished. This very lack of demand from the game, and absence of clear markers or objectives, emphasise its overwhelming scale without actually overwhelming the player. All one has to do is explore; find new and different paths. Therefore, in the spirit of the high fantasy that Elden Ring masters, it is only imagination, or lack thereof, which set the boundaries.

In the distant future, gaming should, in theory, get better. But until then, I pity any game that shares its genre with Elden Ring.

I typically don't review DLC expansions because of the simple fact that, a lot of the time, they're kinda ass. But Lost Judgment: The Kaito Files blows a lot of current DLC packs out of the water.

Kaito was always the best character of Judgement's main cast just due to his immediately warm personality. The story they give him in the original Judgement was enough for people to like him even further and it could have ended there. However, The Kaito Files looks to give Kaito himself an entire game's worth of story and growth as he's slung into the protagonist chair for his own story. While brief, The Kaito Files more than certainly warrants its own existence, as it introduces its own entire cast and consequences that i don't think you could have gotten in a regular Judgment game, while Kaito was still in the side character position. The Kaito Files gives him a much welcomed sense of depth, as we delve into his history and personal life, separated from the pre existing cast of the first two Judgment games.

Kaito's playstyle, in actuality, even feels better than Yagami's in certain circumstances. While one of his combat styles is ripped straight from Kiryu's original move set, the other, brawler type feels fun, flashy and weighted. Exactly what you want from a Yakuza fight style.

I think the only real issue with The Kaito Files is the lack of any optional content like a handful of substories exclusive to Kaito, or even activities that you can't do in the main Lost Judgment. Given that Kaito is a very different character to Yagami, both thought wise and build wise, they could have had some interesting side stories. However, as it is now, The Kaito Files is very solid and a surprise to say the least, for the Yakuza franchises' first ever DLC story expansion.

Outside certain parts in the middle like Chapter 7 being slow, straight up perfect game that kept me hooked from start to finish. Amazing balance between the suspense of the mystery crime thriller drama and chemistry between the boys in the Detective Agency which is all the hallmarks and strengths of a good RGG game. I love how this game gives us a different perspective, it has a more grounded feeling compared to the Yakuza games as we view Kamurocho from the lens of families not on top of the chain yet the stakes are just as high.

Yagami's character writing in this game from start to finish is absolutely brilliant. He's already one of my favorite characters in RGG with the way his story arcs unfolds where he ran away from the truth for the longest time yet still being the one who strives towards justice. The ending to the game was also haunting, they really should have been the main title Judge Eyes cuz of how well it ties into the ending fr.

Every game RGG has made since Yakuza 0 onwards have been non stop bangers, its only upwards from here

Even though I only finished Y0 for now, it might be a stretch but Kiryu and Majima are already among two of my favorite characters in fiction. Both of them are characterized wonderfully throughout the entire game not only in their heartfelt and emotional journey but also through exploring Kamurocho/Sotenbori through their lens. They are goofballs, dense at times and awkward, yet endearing, passionate and just charismatic in what they do, everything from beating up goons to singing karaoke feels like a man putting everything they have into doing what they love and what they have to do. As someone who loves story with ideas of forging your own path, by the end these two characters are the very embodiment of it and I fucking love them so much.

Yakuza 0 is an absolute masterpiece not just in balancing serious crime drama while embracing its silliness, but also manages to be one of the most fun, thrilling and emotional experience I've ever had with any piece of media. The story is absolutely incredible, a political war between different factions in the family that had me tearing up in some of the latter half of the story, it really shows how good a quality of a story is when I love every single one of the antagonist, from the three lieutenants, Sagawa, Nishitani etc., all of them with their compelling motivations and able to stand on their own as characters through their presence and excellent voice performances, creating some of the most cathartic boss fights in any game for me.

Admittedly some of the minigames had me pulling my hair out and I didn't like some of them (need the catfight shit gone) but the positives outweigh the bad ones easily. As someone who completed all the 100 substories I can also say I absolutely love them. These two cities I spend hundreds of hours exploring are densely packed with things to explore and different people to meet that feels like a living breathing place, and that is my favorite kind of setting tbh

Oh yeah I also 100% the completion list #realfan even though Y0 could be the peak for me I'll still really excited for what is to come for the rest of the games

FromSoft's first open world game and they absolutely nailed it. I was initially worried that the move meant they would have to compromise on level design, but that wasn’t really the case here. Despite its vast and seamless world, the majority of it still has the same level of varied intricacy as the rest of their games. Like sprawling castles with detailed interiors and immense verticality, random caves you may stumble across that lead to massive underground systems, and of course plenty of unique bosses to fight.

That’s its biggest strength for me, the exploration. What sets it apart from many others is the complete lack of endless map markers or quests to focus on, rather just letting you get lost in a world with so much to see on the horizon that you can’t help but want to explore. And it rewards this curiosity by always having something worthwhile to find, whether it be useful items, boss encounters, or even paths to entire new areas. This also makes approaching difficult bosses a bit more manageable, as you can always just go somewhere else if you’re stuck and try again when you’re stronger.

And as a setting I loved The Lands Between. I’m not sure how much influence GRRM had over the world-building, but its mysterious lore is ever present all over and it’s wonderfully realized. It’s still as somber as From games have always been, but it also felt more grand given how open it is in comparison.

The only real gripe I had was the smaller catacombs you can find felt a bit too repetitive. Most of them look the same and some bosses are reused for them, basically serving as ER’s version of chalice dungeons which is eh. But I still enjoyed going through them so didn’t mind too much. Performance also seems… not great on most platforms, but I played the BC version on PS5 so was pretty much locked 60 for me. Hopefully they can iron its issues out for everything else.

But overall it’s yet another masterful game by From and now among my favorites. I’m excited to see where they go from here, cause it really did feel like a culmination of all their work up to now.

Absolutely mesmerizing. I don't think any character in the last couple years has resonated with the same way Ichiban Kasuga does. As much as I love Kiryu and Majima as characters, Ichiban is a character whose growth throughout this game alone sets him up to be the character that means the most to me in this series.

There's a couple narrative issues I have with the game, and some gripes about some of the politics of the game (woodaba's review highlights a couple of them, although I can't 100% agree with them), but a lot of it is overshadowed by how much I love and character for the primary crew in this game.

Game had me crying a bunch near the end. I may just be a sucker for found family shit, though.

Roguelikes aren’t much my thing since I find losing all the progress you make in a run to be more frustrating than anything, and Hades isn’t really different about that. But it definitely takes an interesting spin on the formula with how it integrates into its story, along with just being a very well polished game.

I really love the art direction and how vibrant the environments are. The character designs are also fantastic, all the gods look dope and really bring the style to life. The music and voice acting’s great too.

It’s definitely not easy, it took me a lot of tries to get through the bosses and reach the end. And after completing a full run there’s even more difficult modifiers you can add for replays. Combat’s based around 6 weapons and a variety of boons that give skills and upgrades to help get through, and it’s really fun when you start putting together builds for your playstyle. I ended up sticking with the shield.

It did start to get a bit tiring the more runs I did, but dying a lot is expected and always lead to new dialogue from the characters, more skills opening up, and better upgrades that slowly make you stronger and more prepared for the next time. So it’s definitely the type of game that’s hard to put down since you’ll want to keep trying over and over.

The glaring flaw in this game is its historical inaccuracy. For example, when a great Artist is born in your country, some boring text gets shown and some weird purple numbers go up on the screen but that's it. You don't see the Great Artist enjoying his fame, getting tons of women and power and money and doing lots of drugs and stuff and being cool, like they would in history. Not only that, but the Great Artist is never made honorary king, and you can't even instruct your military to switch allegiances to him. You don't get a tour of the Great Artist's large estate where he has tons of cool horses and probably something crazy like a lion, because Great Artists are wild like that. Possibly most heinous of all is that your Great Artist does not go on wild, blow-out tours throughout every other players' civilization, leaving almost terrorist-like destruction in his wake, something legendary and awesome like that. Other than that it's pretty good.